THE CRAMPTON CASE

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 152, 24 December 1918, Page 2

THE CRAMPTON CASE

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —You credit me with having said that "papers containing admissions by Lieutenant Crampton before the courtmartial at Samoa had not been submitted to the magistrate who conducted | the inquiry into the treatment of prisoners in the Wanganiii Detention Barracks," and then you go on to say that "the Defence department gives an emphatic denial to this assertion " Now, a. perusal of the fairly accurate reports .of my references to this case which appeared iii your morning contemporaries will show that I made no charge of the kind to which the department hastens to furnish a I'eply The charge that, 1 made was that the statement given to the press by Sir James Allen did not contain all the'facts relating to Crampton's trial at Samoa, and I challenged the Government to make available to the public the evidence given at that trial, including Crarevpton's own admissions. Incidentally, in referring to the assertion that the magistrate had made no' reference to the Samoan incident in his Wanganui report, I invited the Government 1 to say whether " those admissions were placed before the magistrate; butT made "no charge in this respect. The question that now arises is : Why does the Defence Department rush into print to answer a charge that was never made, while the Minister remains silent about the charge that was made? Finally, will the Defence' Department permit myself or any other person interested in this case to peruse the papers which were placed before the magistrate ? —I am etc.,' H. E. HOLLAND.